Seth is Here!

Seth Timothy Alfred Pyatskowit was born Monday, April 21 at 7:22 p.m. He weighs 6 pounds 8 ounces and is 17 inches long. He has strawberry blond hair and his eyes are still an in-between blueish brown. His middles names are his two grandpas' first names. He was born after a very quick labor (for you moms out there I went from 4-10 in 45 minutes and he was born after 3 pushes). He is practically a perfect baby. He sleeps 8 hours at night with one feeding in the middle. Can't ask for more. He rarely cries and nurses really well. He must have gained weight already with all he eats. JJ and Elise are really enjoying having a brother! They are so helpful, and so excited! I'll give more details later. Time is an expensive commodity right now:)!

Waiting, Waiting

Only a week or two until this baby comes! We are all just waiting for it, and getting a few last-minute things done. My due dates are Apr. 14 (ultrasound) and 23. So anytime in the next couple of weeks we should meet baby Pyatskowit #3! Last night Jonathan moved a bunch of boxes back up to the attic for me (I had been rooting around in them for baby stuff), I found my favorite diaper bag my sister-in-law made for me, and we rearranged our bedroom. With the pack-and-play in our room for the baby to sleep in, it was cramped and blocked Jonathan's closet and the full-length mirror. So all we had to do was move the bed to be centered under the bay window (some of you know what I'm talking about) and our bedside tables. Everything else stayed where it was. Then the pack-and-play can be next to my side of the bed and I can still get around it. The bed actually looks really cool in the middle of the windows. And I really got rid of some dust from where the bed had been.
Jonathan has been working on painting the cradle. We got this large wooden cradle from his mom that he and all his brothers used as babies. Neat! It is really beautiful, but had been painted many times, and the last coat was dark brown. Not my choice. So JonD has two coats of Kilz on it, and now needs to put on the final coat of a dark cream color (not quite tan). Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating. It has been in the 30s all week. We even had 3 inches of snow yesterday. Yuck! I'm having some sheets made special for the cradle (it is an odd size as it was handmade by someone they went to church with back then). Hopefully next week it can get done.
I have my bag packed and I'm ready to go!

Boy?

Another baby update. Just for fun, I thought I'd let you all know that I think the baby is a boy. Of course, we'll see for sure when it "pops out" as my kids say. But there are a lot of reasons that I feel pretty sure it is a boy. My belly sticks right out in the front. I actually still have hips. I was similar with Elise, but more pregnant all around. My belly is just like when I had JJ. Also, my hair has not grown any longer, just thicker, like with JJ. With Elise, my hair grew 5-6 inches longer - drastically noticeable change. I'm also a lot nicer than when I was pregnant with Elise. I was just mean sometimes, ok a lot of the time, when I was pregnant with her, and knew it but really felt like I had no control over it. I know people tried to stay out of my way, notably my husband! With JJ I don't remember having that problem. A lot of these things could be attributed to being less stressed this time around, and having a baby close to the same time as when I had JJ (he was born in May), but we'll see. It is just fun to think it is a boy, and then wait to find out for sure. I told Jonathan yesterday that I actually will be shocked if it is a girl; I just think of the baby as a boy.

Baby Update

Just a little baby update for all of you. I am doing really well in general. It is about 6 weeks to my due date (April 23). Not long! And we're really busy all through March so it will come quickly. I sure am ready to not be pregnant anymore. I feel really pretty healthy. Still don't know the baby's gender (yeah!) and names are settled. I just need to unpack a few boxes left in the den from moving (yes, a year ago) and hang things up on the walls in there. Then all of our inside big jobs are done, and I can let myself get baby stuff out. I'm getting a little anxious. The baby still moves a lot, but it is getting less wild in there as the baby gets bigger and has less room to move around. I'm also starting to get a little apprehensive about labor. I'm a little worried it will be long and of course painful, or too quick, like Elise's birth. I think that once I know I'm in labor I'll be racing for the hospital doors. Let us not forget that Elise almost could have been born in McDonald's drive through! In about 7 weeks it will all be over and we'll have a precious baby!

Did YOU see the "lunar" eclipse?

Well, there was a lunar eclipse a couple of weeks ago on a Wednesday night. We forgot to go out and look at it. The next day when I picked JJ up from school, he indignantly asked me "Why didn't I get to see the MOONER ECLIPSE?" I had to really try not to laugh out loud. They still say cute stuff even at 5! Just had to share that - it was classic.

Elise's cast

Well, I am in Troy and playing around on my Dad's computer, which has some picture of my kids on it. I am trying to put a picture on here. Let's see if it works! Here is Elise back in Sept. with her cast. See an August post (I think) for the story of her broken arm. She was so proud of that "fiberglass cast."

Huckleberry Finn

We have a new kitten! We got him about 4 weeks ago from the Humane Sociey. Stu did end up being very ill with feline leukemia and had to be put to sleep. That was very sad and the kids wanted a new kitty right away to make them happy again. I thought that was a good idea, and sooner rather than later to have things settled again by the time the baby arrives. We named our kitty Huckleberry Finn (because we live on Sawyer St.). He has many nicknames already. I call him Little Huck, mostly, and JJ calls him Hockey Puck. He is a very good kitten. Bella is still not too happy with him, but it gets better every day. He sleeps well at night and is a good eater. Yeah, it is almost like having a very self-reliant baby in some ways. He needs to learn not to jump onto the table or climb the back of my robe. Elise likes to carry him around in a a little tote bag she has, and JJ loves playing with him with string. He is buff colored, a very pretty kitty.